Theme: Novel Curiosity

Curiosity is childish. It’s a science fair explosion. A misplaced LEGO. A vivid story conjured from the mundane. But it’s not all games. It’s the source of great ideas. And making them tangible is life’s truest endeavour. Then curiosity is not just childish. It’s novel.

Join us to bring together ideas sprung from curiosity at this year’s TEDxOxbridge.

Cambridge Arts Theater
6 St. Edward's Passage
Cambridge, Cambridgeshire, CB2 3PJ
United Kingdom

Andrew Stein

Lawyer and MBA

Andrew Stein, Esq. is an attorney whose practice focuses on business formation and commercial litigation. After graduating from Boston University, Andrew earned his Juris Doctor from Villanova University School of Law. Prior to private practice, he served as a judicial law clerk in the Superior Court of New Jersey. He is currently reading for his MBA at Oxford’s Said Business School.

Ashwin Balivada

Entrepreneur and MBA

Ashwin bootstrapped his way from just another teenager to head of India’s No.1 beverage alcohol startup. Known as“The Whisky Entrepreneur” among his friends, he’s now focusing his limitless energy on combining his entrepreneurial experience and management skills to steer his organization toward becoming one the world’s top 50 beverage alcohol companies. At Cambridge, outside his lectures and project works, he spends his time motivating passionate individuals to take the plunge into entrepreneurship by sharing his experience and guiding them to “Kick Off”!! Of course, he makes sure to always have a beer in his hand.

Christina Mackay

Management Consultant and MBA

MBA at Cambridge University’s Judge Business School. Speaker Liaison for The Cambridge Union. Poets & Quants named her as an “MBA to watch”. Recipient of Cambridge University Entrepreneurs Social Enterprise Award. Management Consultant for eight years with Ernst & Young living in New York and London. Working with entrepreneurs to help them grow their businesses. Specialized in Program Management. Law degree and CIMA certificate in Business Accounting. Managing Director of an online platform connecting Investors and Entrepreneurs (inen.global). Worked as a volunteer in India and enjoy keeping fit. Trekked on Mt Everest, on Mount Kilimanjaro and on the Inca Trail.

Colleen Leth

Museum Manager and MBA

Colleen specializes in museum management and the history of collecting. Trained as an Egyptologist, she is a published author of several research studies on cultural property law and restitution practice in the Middle East and North Africa. For the past ten years, Colleen has worked as a negotiator and strategist for several national museums, NGOs, and governments throughout the Mediterranenan and MENA regions, and most recently ran the Global Museum Leaders Colloquium at The Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City. She serves as an advisor to the Egyptian Ministry of Culture, a Creative Time Global Ambassador, Vice President of Tauck Ritzau Innovative Philanthropy, and President of BAFA, a mentorship platform for women in the arts. An avid traveler, she is committed to fostering economic and social progress through investments in the culture sector and believes in the power of art to promote awareness and create meaning.

Dr. Christopher Sier

Fintech Expert

Chris is Co-MD of FiNexus, a knowledge-transfer and research organization, and advises the UK Government, Regulators and various trade bodies on pension fund Corporate Governance and Cost Transparency. Chris also advises a range of stakeholders including the UK Government on innovation and fintech. Previously he was Managing Director of KAS Bank UK, an Asset Servicing and Pension Fund specialist, and Director of the Financial Services Knowledge Transfer Network, a research, innovation and knowledge transfer organisation for financial services, bridging industry, academia and government. In the dim and distant past he was a police officer in Edinburgh.

Dr. Rowan Williams

Theologian, Author, and Poet

Rowan Williams grew up in South Wales and studied theology at Cambridge before proceeding to research in Oxford on Russian religious thought. After teaching in Cambridge and Oxford, he returned to Wales as a bishop and later served for ten years as Archbishop of Canterbury. He is now Master of Magdalene College. He has published a number of books on theology, philosophy and literature, as well as four volumes of poetry.

Dr. Tim Minshall

Reader in Technology and Innovation Management

Tim Minshall is a Reader in Technology and Innovation Management at Cambridge University Engineering Department and a Fellow of Churchill College. His research, teaching and outreach is focused on open innovation, the adoption of new technologies, the development of engineering skills, and the growth of the Cambridge high tech cluster. He is a Non-Executive Director of St John's Innovation Centre , a Visiting Research Fellow at the Institute of Technology, Enterprise and Competitiveness (ITEC) at Doshisha University , and a member of the IET's Innovation and Emerging Technologies Policy Panel . He is a member of advisory / steering committees for groups including ideaSpace, Cambridge University Entrepreneurs, Cambridge i-Teams, and 100% Open . He is a recipient of a University of Cambridge Pilkington Prize for Teaching Excellence and aRoyal Academy of Engineering/ExxonMobil Excellence in Teaching Award .

Duncan Goodhew

Former Olympic Swimmer

Duncan Goodhew is an English former Olympic swimmer for Great Britain and won Olympic gold and bronze medals at the 1980 Summer Olympics in Moscow.

Lara Zeineddine

Digital Business Expert and MBA

Lara is a travel enthusiast with a passion for exploring the uniqueness of different cultures. She set out to visit 30 cities by the age of 30–she’s trekked in India, abseiled a canyon in Nepal, and caved in New Zealand along the way. She has enriched her internationalist zeal at the Cambridge Judge Business School, where she is pursuing an MBA in entrepreneurship with colleagues from 40 nationalities. Prior to moving to the UK, she headed digital product development at a media publishing house in the UAE. Lara is looking to build a career in digital business after her MBA.

Matt Beeton

Cyclist and Transport Strategist

Matt was educated and awarded at Coventry University, Cambridge University and Harvard Business School. However, his early career path began as a racing cyclist, where he represented a French racing team and also represented Great Britain. Starting on a graduate program at Rolls Royce Aerospace, at just 26 years old, Matt was offered a Director role within the Rolls-Royce Civil Aerospace business. His next challenge took him into the service industry as a Managing Director within Serco PLC and he has since held Chief Operating Officer position at National Express and Vix. Matt now owns APT Business Solutions and advises organisations such as Transport for the North, Transport for Greater Manchester and is an associate in GLG New York. He is about to publish a book on the importance of emotional and social intelligence in leadership. He is still a keen cyclist, a multi-rated pilot and arranges charity events for children charities such as BLISS and Clic Sargent.

Neil Dubey

Medical Student and MBA

Neil Dubey is a perpetual student. He's taking a break from medical training at George Washington University School of Medicine in Washington DC to pursue an MBA at Judge Business School. His interests include global perspectives on medicine, healthcare innovation and doctor-patient communication. At Cambridge, you may find him kayaking down the Cam, zipping through town in a Soviet-era bicycle or sporting fancy dress at formal affairs.

Paul Bourne

Artistic Director

Paul Bourne is a professional Theatre Director and a Fellow in Creative Engagement at the University of Cambridge, Moscow School of Management and Stockholm School of Economics. As well as directing over 90 professional plays in ten different countries, Paul has led programmes on Creative Communication Re-framing for many businesses including BBC, Liverpool Football Club, McLaren Formula One Racing, Fairtrade and The US Army.

Sebastian Payne

Digital Comment Editor

Sebastian Payne is digital comment editor of the Financial Times, where he writes primarily about British politics. He has previously worked as online editor and a political journalist for The Spectator magazine, as well as a reporter at Daily Telegraph. He was the 35th Lawrence Stern fellow at The Washington Post and lives in London.

Stephen Robert Morse

Entrepreneur and Consultant

Prior to attending the University of Oxford’s Saïd Business School, Stephen co-founded Skillbridge (acquired by Toptal), an online platform to find and hire the world's best business and strategy consultants. He has worked and consulted for a number of startups in New York and London including Lightbox (acquired by Facebook), Seamless (merged with GrubHub), Quirky, Shapeways, and Appboy. Stephen was awarded a BA (honors) in English and history from the University of Pennsylvania and a dual MA (honors) in Journalism and Media within Globalization/Financial Journalism from a consortium of European institutions he attended as an Erasmus Mundus scholar. Stephen is a 2012 Tow-Knight Entrepreneurial Journalism Fellow and 2009 Robert Novak Journalism Fellow. He contributes regularly to the Financial Times and Fast Company.

Tia Kansara

Future City Sustainability Entrepreneur

Tia is an award-winning entrepreneur moderator, lecturer and author. She is the founder and director of Kansara Hackney Ltd. (KH), the first sustainable lifestyle consultancy in the UK. Tia did her Ph.D. at University College London, Energy Institute on designing future cities and energy evaluation in the Gulf. Since then she has published several papers and has been invited to advise on sustainable cities at conferences around the world, such as the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development, BioTrade Initiative on sustainability. Her recent work involved providing city governments with her concept of Replenish, a per capita assessment of ecosystem services and publishing her first book, Replenish.

Yutaro Kojima

Creative Strategist

Yutaro Kojima is a Creative Strategist at Facebook’s Creative Shop. In this role, Yutaro designs ideas that nudge age-old mega brands into the consumer reality of today. But what really gets him out of bed is helping unlock the potential for mega brands of tomorrow in SMBs, gaming, and emerging markets through the unbound possibilities of technology. Prior to Facebook, Yutaro worked 18 years in the Advertising industry as a rather ‘traditional’ Creative Director for Y&R New York, Dentsu Y&R Tokyo, and Saatchi & Saatchi London. To keep a finger on the pulse of reality, Yutaro sits on the board of Syndicate Room, an equity crowd-funding platform that he had a small part in co-founding while completing his graduate degree at the University of Cambridge.

Zahra Latif

Human Rights Advocate

Zahra Latif is studying to be a Master of Public Policy at the Blavatnik School of Government, University of Oxford. Her experiences include using storytelling to work through conflict in communities, working on human rights in Bangladesh, advising universities and colleges on interfaith and conflict management, campaigning for minority groups’ rights and facilitating young people’s political engagement. She strives to enable understanding across difference and to create positive social impact. She’s not afraid to get stuck in, including once dancing the robot on stage in a hall full of British ambassadors.